


Space

by SolosOrca



Series: Space AU [2]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: F/F, M/M, Space AU, sakuno is bi as hell, there's also some past sakuno crushing on ryoma stuff, wow this fic is long
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-24
Updated: 2017-03-24
Packaged: 2018-10-10 01:08:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10425852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SolosOrca/pseuds/SolosOrca
Summary: An didn't expect to fall in love before she'd even started her new job.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bookwyrmling](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookwyrmling/gifts).



> Space AU lives!!!! My titles also continue to be creatively bankrupt.  
> The Javelins look like English Eectric Lightnings... my obsession with Cold War British jets is too great and any fighter jet made by a kitchen appliance company has to be good!

Fighter pilots were the superstars of the galaxy.  Leave on Earth was filled with interviews and photoshoots and chat show spots and invites to the fanciest parties on the planet. An had enjoyed all the fuss at first, but she was supposed to be spending her leave relaxing and preparing for her next trip off world, not being asked about her space hair care routine. She was sure there were women on board who genuinely cared about their hair and yes, nice hair was, well, nice, but they should be asking her about how cool her ship  was and other inspiring things about being a fighter pilot. Female pilots, fighter or not, were rare, almost an endangered species, and she should be inspiring young girls to follow in her footsteps not her make-up regime.

All these thoughts circled her head as she watched her new ship being loaded for its launch the next day.

The ISEF Seishun was a beautiful ship.

She was built for space exploration with all kinds of scientific capabilities. But- as she was sent into some very dangerous areas of space- was also equipped with state-of-the-art weaponry and a whole squadron of fighter ships. One of which was all hers.

She had been posted on board the ISEF Fudomine for all of her career. It was Seishun's sister ship, but was set up as a battleship as her job was to patrol the solar system and defend the Earth.

She had thoroughly enjoyed her time on board, the crew was large, but close knit and her older brother had been the captain. But she was itching to go further out into the galaxy, to see the stars that had been pinpricks close up. The solar system was just too small to contain her ambition and curiosity.

"Um… Excuse me," a soft voice said, its owner tapping An on the shoulder.

She turned and was very glad she did when her eyes were filled with the vision of a very pretty woman with pigtails and large brown eyes.

"I need to get through the gate," the woman said, motioning to what An had been leaning against. An's eyes flicked down to the identification tag hanging around her neck.

'Sakuno Ryuuzaki, Science Division'

Somehow, that made her even cuter.

"Sorry," An said with a bright smile. "Do you need a hand?" she added, eyeing the large pile of luggage on the hoversled Sakuno had been pulling.

"I'm fine," Sakuno replied, "thank you though."

It was only after she'd disappeared into the crowds around the ship that An realised she wasn't wearing her ID and couldn't have gone through the gate.

* * *

 

‘Take off in Five minutes. Please take your take off positions.’

The electronic voice blared out of every speaker on the ship, ringing in Ryoma's head.

He really wished they'd record a version with a less shrill voice, this one made his head hurt. He'd been through take off hundreds of times, he didn't need a stupid voice telling him what to do. He just had to make sure all his luggage was strapped down (which he'd done as soon as he boarded, there was no point in unpacking till they were in space), sit on his dedicated seat in the living area shared by himself and 2 other members of his squadron, strap in and wait around till they were finally in space.

"I thought it was 10 minutes!" Eiji cried, running out from his room. "I'm not ready!"

"Hurry up and get ready," Ryoma rolled his eyes. "or sit down and deal with it later."

He'd done that before. It had been his first time in space and he hadn't realised that unpacking and then strapping everything down was much harder that just securing his suitcases. He'd gone back into his room after take-off to find all his belongings scattered all over his room. He wasn't sure what Eiji's excuse for not doing it Ryoma's way was, he'd been into space multiple times and always spend the first day rearranging all his things.

"Where's our third guy" Eiji asked as he scurried back into his room.

"Girl," Ryoma corrected him.

There wasn't enough women in the squadron to give them their own room, so she'd been put with them. Ryoma guessed that it said something about himself and Eiji.

"Really?" Eiji's head appeared from his room again. "There are girl fighter pilots?"

"Yeah."

Eiji opened his mouth to say something, but the door opened and their new roommate dashed in.

"Hi guys," she said, smiling brightly as she found her seat.

‘Take off in Two minutes.’

The electronic voice cut across them and Eiji swore, giving up on strapping down his belongings and throwing himself into his seat.

"I'm An Tachibana," the woman introduced herself as she strapped herself in.

"Ryoma Echizen," Ryoma muttered, staring out the window at the blue sky beyond whilst Eiji introduced himself.

"I transferred from the Fudomine," An said. "I wanted to explore more of space,"

Ryoma let Eiji and An's conversation about the joys of space fade out, nodding occasionally to pretend he was listening.

‘Take off in Ten seconds. Please take your seats.’

The voice could barely be heard now over the ships engines that had started to roar, sending vibrations through them all.

Finally!

An squealed happily and Eiji cheered and Ryoma resigned himself to 5 years with noisy roommates.

Outside the window, clouds rushed passed then the atmosphere got thinner and thinner and thinner. Ryoma stretched up to see the thin blue line between Earth and space. It was his favourite view in the whole galaxy, one that had burned itself into his memory on his first trip off Earth.

The Earth steadily disappeared, the gravity leaving with it. They would have a couple of minutes of zero G before the artificial gravity kicked in. New recruits often dared each other to take off their straps and float around before gravity returned. Lots of bones had been broken that way.

An and Eiji seemed uninterested in fooling around in zero G, so Ryoma remained buckled in- slightly sore he couldn't show off his skills.

"Do you guys know Sakuno Ryuuzaki?" An asked. "She works in the science division."

Eiji threw Ryoma a look that made his heart sink.

"Ryoma knows her," he said in a sing song voice that made An frown and Ryoma's heart continue its descent right through his feet.

"I don't!" he snapped.

"We escorted a scientific mission down to some jungle planet," Eiji explained and Ryoma fought the urge to float over and shut his stupid mouth. "No one attacked us, but afterwards Sakuno came over and thanked Ryoma and totally ignored the rest of us! She was blushing so hard!"

"I was leading the squadron," Ryoma muttered.

"Then they had lunch together!" Eiji continued regardless.

"We sat at the same table  _ once _ !" Ryoma snapped. " _ You're _ the only one who thinks we're in love!"

He unstrapped and floated into his room. With well-practiced skill he used the rungs of the ladder to pull himself up to the bed just as the Auto-G cut in and he flopped down onto the soft mattress.

Stupid Eiji. He was obsessed with setting Ryoma up with someone. And Ryoma already had a someone, but he wasn't allowed to tell anyone!

He imagined a pair of arms wrapping around him, pulling him in and holding him tight. He missed Tezuka.

As if sensing him, Captain Tezuka's voice came over the speaker telling them all that they'd safely taken off (Ryoma had always found that part of Tezuka's speech amusing, as if he would even be giving it if take off hadn't gone well) and that it was now fine to move about the ship.

"I hope we can all work well together," Tezuka finished off, Ryoma savouring the last few moments of his boyfriend's smooth voice.  He'd have to sneak out when he was supposed to be sleeping to see him.

* * *

 

"Finally, we need to vote for squadron representative," Ryoma said boredly. The first meeting of the squadron was normally boring and awkward as the new members tried to fit in with the  old ones. And, as squadron leader, he had to lead it.

An put up her hand, "what do they do?"

"They're part of the diplomatic envoy that gets sent down to populated planets," Eiji explained, "Shorty usually does it."

"I want to do it," An said. "It'll be really interesting."

"It's boring," Ryoma said. "So, who votes for An?" he asked the room. Eiji and a couple of the newer recruits put their hands up. "And who votes for me?" The rest of the room raised their hands. "That's sorted."

It wasn't the favourite part of his role, but it gave him more time with Tezuka, so he was always happy to be put into the role.

"That's everything, you can all go do whatever," Ryoma said and his squadron started to disperse.

"Do you think they did that because I'm a woman?" An asked as Ryoma gathered up his papers. "I could totally do that role!"

Ryoma sighed, he did not have the energy for this. "I've done it for a few years," he replied, "they know I'm not gonna insult someone. It also means none of them have to do it."

"I wanted to do it," An sighed.

"If there's a chance to take someone with me I'll ask you," Ryoma shrugged.

"Thank you! So, you know Sakuno Ryuuzaki, right?"

"Vaguely, why?"

"I want to get to know her! You know, women in male dominated environments gotta stick together," An explained.

"If you're both in the same place I'll introduce you," Ryoma said. "I have no idea where in the ship she works."

"And you're definitely not dating her?"

"Yes," Ryoma replied insistently, happy to destroy the rumour at every opportunity.

"Good," An said cheekily, "you're not good enough for someone so cute."

* * *

 

The medbay had been empty since take off with the exception of a security ensign who had broken a finger when the Auto-G had started up. It wasn't like Tomoka wanted lots of horrible injuries and illnesses, but she wanted  _ something  _ to pass the time.

She spent her shift sat at her computer terminal scrolling through medical journals and video calling Sakuno.

Thankfully, there wasn't a lot happening in the scientific department either.

"Let me give you a blood test," she whines at Sakuno.

"What? Why?"

"I'm so bored! You never know, you might have picked up something on leave! Please Sakuno!"

Sakuno looked flustered, "That's a waste of resources. I feel fine. Anyway," she said, anything to get Tomoka away from the subject of blood tests, "you know that woman I met at the gate?"

"The one you instantly fell in love with?" Tomoka teased. Sakuno had only mentioned the meeting once, but it was Tomoka's job, as her best friend, to tease her about it.

"Tomo-chan!" Sakuno whined.

"The one you have a crush on?" Tomoka amended her statement slightly and Sakuno blushed guiltily.

"I saw her in the mess hall," Sakuno said, "she was with the fighter squadron."

"You've fallen for  _ another _ fighter pilot?" Tomoka cackled. Two years ago it had been Ryoma Echizen and now it was a mystery woman.

"Don't laugh," Sakuno said pathetically. "I don't even know her name. I bet she doesn't even remember."

"I can help you with the first one," Tomoka winked, pulling up the ship's medical database.

"W-What are you doing? Tomo-chan, that's probably illegal!"

"I just want her name," Tomoka shrugged, "I have legal access anyway."

She quickly clicked her way to the squadron personnel and began to scroll down the list, hoping that the woman wasn't from another department and dating one of the squadron. Thankfully, that wasn't true and she found the file of Sakuno's new true love.

"She's called An Tachibana, blood type O, Born March 21st-"

"Tomo-chan! You said you were just going to get her name!" Sakuno whined.

"She has no history of horrible diseases," Tomoka finished. "What? If you're gonna date her you want her to be healthy."

Sakuno's head was in her hands now, a face no doubt blushing bright red.

"She's cute and clearly your type being a fighter pilot and all," Tomoka said, unable to stop the teasing jab, "you should go for it."

"She won't remember me though!"

"Make her remember you!"

* * *

 

Ryoma looked out over the vastness of space, his hand pressed against the window.  Beyond was the Helix Nebula, a large cloud of gas- the birthplace of stars. Ryoma couldn't pull his eyes away and the huge window in Tezuka's room offered the perfect view.

Behind him,  he heard said captain stirring and then walking over to him. A warm blanket was wrapped around his naked body, Ryoma hadn't even realised he's gotten chilly.

"You'll catch a cold," Tezuka said, pressing his lips to the side of Ryoma's neck and Ryoma shivered. "Why are you awake?"

Ryoma shrugged, "I just woke up and we were passing the nebula."

"You should have become a scientist," Tezuka said, sounding sleepily amused.

"How would I have been able to seduce you then?" Ryoma snorted, "without my sexy ship."

"My ship's bigger than yours," Tezuka replied smugly, leaning his head on Ryoma's shoulder and staring out at the nebula. "You'd look cute in a lab coat."

"I'll steal one," Ryoma said, "and start talking like Inui."

"Don't do that," Tezuka sighed. "Come back to bed, Ryoma. You can watch the nebula from there," he whispered into Ryoma's ear, making his knees melt.

"Fine," Ryoma sighed, letting himself be lead back to Tezuka's double bed, far superior to his own single bunk. "Can I go fly through the nebula?" he asked when he was safely snuggled against Tezuka's chest.

"No," Tezuka said sternly, using his Captain Voice.

"Boring," Ryoma muttered, knowing how stupid his request was.

He didn't say 'I wish we didn't have to hide this.' There was no point. If they didn't hide it then Ryoma would be sent to another squadron on another ship and he wouldn't see Tezuka for years, probably decades, at a time. It wouldn't work, but he needed to be with Tezuka, no one had ever made him feel this way.

To be together, they had to hide their relationship and that was a sacrifice they were both grudgingly happy to make.

Ryoma kissed Tezuka's collar bone. "How about if I gave you a really good-"

"No, Ryoma," Tezuka cut across him. "I'm not letting you loose in a nebula. Now go to sleep."

"Only if you kiss me."

Tezuka sighed good naturedly and with a soft smile rolled Ryoma onto his back and kissed him deeper than space itself.

* * *

 

"Ah, Tezuka," Fuji, chief communications officer, said as Tezuka walked into the comms room. "Just the captain I wanted to see."

Tezuka raised an eyebrow and didn't comment he was the only captain on board the ship. No one quite knew where Fuji came from. He looked completely human apart from his eyes, which were reptilian. It was thoroughly disconcerting the first time you met him. He'd joined a deep space exploration team -of which he was one of only two survivors- and then joined the ISEF and risen up the communication ranks.

"What did you call me here for?"

Fuji chuckled, the  nictitating membrane flicking across his blue eyes and brought up a video, one that made Tezuka's blood run cold. On the screen, Ryoma was knocking on a door, a door that Tezuka knew was the door to his room. He looked completely casual, rocking back on his heels with his arms folded across his chest. The door opened and Tezuka came out -the actual Tezuka cringing at the soft smile on his face when his past self caught sight of Ryoma.

He looked away and back to Fuji, who was grinning like a hyena.

"So, your little meeting lasted how long?" Fuji asked.

"You already know," Tezuka replied, not wanting to give him the satisfaction.

"It's not technically illegal, you know," Fuji said conversationally, turning to the computer to delete the footage. "The higher ups would definitely frown upon it and make you two split up. You'd better keep it under wraps."

"We are," Tezuka said sternly. If this was all Fuji had called him in for he was going to leave right now.

Fuji thankfully picked up on his tone. "What I called you here for was this," he said, hitting a button. Speech in a language Tezuka didn't understand came crackling over the speakers.

"What is it?" Tezuka asked. Fuji could have played the translated version, but he was clearly messing with him.

"Oh, my translation program hasn't finished running yet," Fuji chuckled, "but," he carried on when he saw the dark look on Tezuka's face, "it's from a bunch of pirates on Y-vex 8, I don't understand much of it other than 'Javelins'."

"As in our fighter ships?"

"I believe so."

Tezuka nodded. "As soon as you have a full translation find me."

* * *

 

The training bay was under the hanger, just a short trip down from her room. It was late, but An wanted to spend a few hours on the simulator. She hadn't had a chance to fly yet and she was feeling twitchy. She was just walking past the shooting gallery when she heard gunfire coming from inside. Curious as to who else was practicing this late she paused and peered around the door.

It was Echizen, a laser rifle propped snuggly against his shoulder.

An frowned, Echizen didn't seem like the type to practice, She'd just assumes he was perfect at everything. He certainly never flaunted his hard work -only his high scores.

"Evening," An said, sliding into the room. Echizen have her a nod of acknowledgement, realigning his sight and fired off a couple of shots, each hitting the bullseye.

"Not bad," An said, grabbing a rifle off the wall.

Echizen shrugged, "It's harder when they're moving. I've just spent three hours in the fight sim though, I just wanted to shoot in a straight line for once."

An unlocked a rifle off the wall and took aim. She'd always been a good shot -she had to be to be the ace of the Fudomine. Her first shot hit the bullseye dead on, but the second was off by millimetres.

"You'd have still killed it," Echizen said, locking his own rifle back on the wall.

An was used to 'better luck next time' or 'better than I expected'. She couldn't tell his Echizen was looking down on her or not. She was used to even the lowest ensign thinking they were better than her just because she was a woman.

Echizen was top dog, he might have officers above him, but as the ace pilot, he was looked up to by most of the ship. There was a reason why people often said the ship belonged to the ace as much as to the captain. The weird thing was, Echizen didn't take his spot at the top table or the single room he was entitled to, choosing instead to room with his squadron. There were aces that did that, but they didn't swagger about the place like Echizen.

And then there was the fact that An had been put in Echizen's unit. It was usual for transfers to be put in the units at the back until they proved themselves. They certainly weren't put on the right wing of the ace. An wasn't sure whether he's been put there to keep her safe or if she'd somehow earned the place without knowing it.

Well, there was one way of finding out.

"Am I a pity case?" An asked.

"What?" Echizen asked, clearly confused. "I've been working out all day, I want to go to bed."

"What are you talking about?"

"What are  _ you _ talking about?"

"I'm a newbie and I'm in your unit," An explained, "That's not normal."

"Neither was your achieved record," Echizen replied, "Tezuka suggested you'd be a good wingman for me."

"Captain Tezuka?"

Echizen rolled his eyes. "Do you know any others? He was the ace when I joined the ship, just before he was made captain. I trust him so I'm giving you a chance."

An was about to reply when a siren went off, deafening them both.

‘Report To Battle Stations.’

The electronic voice boomed out.

"A drill?" An asked, locking her rifle back.

"No," Echizen said. "Come on!"

They raced from the training bay and back up to the hanger. The corridor beyond the staircase was awash with people, all scurrying to positions. An tried to avoid them, but as soon as she'd left the stairwell she bumped straight into a woman.

Sakuno Ryuuzaki to be exact.

They stared at each other, both turning redder and redder.

An opened her mouth to apologise or ask her out -she hadn't quite decided which- when Echizen's voice cut totally ruined the moment.

"Hurry the hell up!" he shouted.

An gave Sakuno a smile and a 'men, huh?' look before following after Echizen.

Why did she have to bump into Sakuno now? Why couldn't it have been just before dinner or something?

She cursed her bad luck as she pulled on her flight suit and dashed to her ship.

The ship -a R49 Javelin- was essentially two engine bolted together with wings and a tail fin added as an afterthought. Seeing her made An's annoyance flood away, especially once she was in the cockpit and the cold realisation of the situation settled in. If this wasn't a drill -and Echizen had sounded sure- then she could be in battle any minute now.

"A Rikkai ship has been spotted in the area," Captain Tezuka's voice filled her ears across the radio. "No aggressive moves have been made yet, but keep your guard up."

"Roger," Echizen's voice said. "Prepare for take-off, we'll be patrolling the ship."

An flipped down her visor, all her ship's data projected onto it so that she could focus on flying and not looking down at the dashboard. She was all ready to go.

"Report in," Echizen said. "Red One standing by."

"Red Two standing by," Eiji said.

"Red Three standing by," An piped in, firing up her engines like Echizen and Eiji had done.

She listened to the rest of the units of the squadron reporting in and then it was time to take off. In formation, they all moved off, getting faster and faster and shooting through the hanger door into space.

An stuck to Echizen's wing as they flew a circuit, looking around for the Rikkai ship. It wasn't that they were at war with Rikkai, but tensions were raised and no one wanted the Seishun to be the first casualty. She spotted it, barely a spot in the distance, illuminated by a nearby star. After a few circuits of the Seishun, it became clear that the Rikkai ship was merely passing and posed little threat. Still, An was sure that the units on board the other ship had been put on high alert too.

"Six unidentified ships approaching from the stern," a voice An didn't recognise said over the radio.

"Red unit with me," Echizen said, heading immediately to the rear of the ship. 

An's targeting computer immediately locked onto the oncoming ships, small and insect like.

"Borderland Rievers," Eiji said grimly and a shard of ice stabbed An in the chest. The reivers were fearless and merciless. Six of them couldn't be expected to take a huge ship like the Seishun, but they could do a lot of damage to the fighter ships.

"Don't let them get on your tail," Echizen ordered, speaking as quickly as he could whilst still remaining clear. "They're going to get under our shields and cause hell."

An tightened her grip on the yoke, her fingers finding the fire button.

Seconds later, the battle started.

The reivers stuck close to the Javelins, making it almost impossible to shoot them and be sure not to hit their own ships. Their target was the Seishun, firing missiles at the large ship to cause as much damage as possible.

An swerved onto the tail of one, but immediately had to roll away to avoid the laser fire from the reiver behind her. The targeting computer locked onto the reiver now beneath her and she twisted the ship over to line up the enemy below. It exploded into a confetti of metal as An's lasers shot through its patchwork body.

One down, who knew how left many to go.

Below her, the hull of the Seishun lit up as missiles were hurled at her. An knew the hull was strong enough to resist the missiles, but how long it could do so was not something she wanted to find out. She dived, followed by Eiji on her underside. The reivers tried to move away, but they were too slow and were caught by the fire from the two Javelins.

"How many left?" An asked.

"There's one on your tail!" Echizen snapped.

An pulled up, the missiles passing so close that she could have sworn it scraped her hull.

"Eiji!" Echizen cried and An cursed her ships turning circle. It was small, but not small enough to see what was happening to Eiji below her.

When she did get turned round, all she could see was the remains of Eiji's ship flying apart. Eiji had been under her, he must have been hit by the missiles.  She searched the remains of the ship, trying desperately to see any sign of life.

"I'm okay, I ejected," Eiji's voice came over the radio and An breathed a sigh of relief.

"Get back to the ship," Echizen ordered and An flew back into formation with him as Echizen flew past her.

"Did you get the guy who shot at us?" An asked.

"Of course," Echizen replied. "How many are left?" he asked the squadron at large.

"Just got the last one," Nomura said.

"The Rikkai ship is out of range," Tezuka said, "return to the ship."

* * *

 

The next morning, An made a decision. She was going to find Sakuno and ask her out. Eiji had had a very lucky escape and it could have easily been her getting hit by the missile. She didn't want to die having not at least tried with Sakuno.

First though, she had to find the science department. She knew her way around the parts of the ship she frequented, but the rest was a huge, sprawling mystery with no maps. She was fairly sure it was towards the bow and on the top levels, but in the twisting corridors it was easy to lose your bearings.

"There you are," Echizen's voice said behind her just as she'd found her way onto the science corridor.

She turned round and saw him coming out of an office, Sakuno in tow.

Why was there always something in the way of her talking to Sakuno? How was she supposed to ask her out with Echizen around.

"Tezuka wants to see us," Echizen said, "come on."

An fell in behind Echizen so she could walk with Sakuno. Normally, she'd make a point of walking at Echizen's side, but she didn't know where they were going and ignoring her pride was worth it to walk next to someone as cute as Sakuno.

"How are you doing?" An asked.

"I'm fine," Sakuno replied, blushing. "Do you know what's happening?"

"I don't know,"

"Tezuka told me to find you and bring you back," Echizen said, interrupting their conversation. "He's got a mission for us."

Sakuno looked overjoyed at that, but An found herself frowning. She wasn't sure about the relationship between Echizen and their captain. He rarely called him 'Captain' or made any mention about their rank. Sure, they'd flown together, but so had a lot of the squadron and none of them called Tezuka anything but 'Captain'. Ryoma Echizen was an odd one for sure.

She had been handpicked by the captain for the mission though, this was a big deal.

Echizen lead them to a briefing room where Tezuka was waiting with a guy An had seen in the hangar bay

"Kawamura," Echizen greeted him as he sat down, his eyes quickly moving to Tezuka. An caught the soft look that passed between them and she fought down her curiosity.

"I've gathered you all here for a special meeting," Tezuka said once they'd all sat down. Sakuno was sitting slightly too close to An, all she had to do was twitch her leg and they'd be touching. An could practically feel the heat radiating off of her.

"We have picked up communications from a group of pirates in the area," Tezuka continued, distracting An from Sakuno. "It appears they have found two Javelins in the forest on Y-vex 8. I'm sure you're aware how expensive these ships are and as we have lost one of our own recently, the plan is the capture them.

"Kawamura will be taking you down to the edge of the forest, from there you will find the ships and fly them back if they're easily repairable. If not send a signal up and a recovery team will be sent."

"Right," Echizen said, "why are we being dropped at the edge of the forest?"

“The trees are too thick to land in," Tezuka replied, "we believe we know where the ships are stored, it's not far from the forest edge."

"Believe?" An asked, not liking the sound of that.

Tezuka bought up a satellite image on the screen. It showed an expanse of treetops before zooming into some flat rooves, barely visible in the undergrowth.

"This is an old base from when the moon was terraformed," Tezuka explained. "As you can see it's been taken over by the forest. We don't know how the Javelins ended up there-"

"But if someone stole them and stashed them away then it would be the most logical place," Echizen finished for him.

"Indeed," Tezuka said. "Remember, only retrieve the ships if it's safe. Do not risk yourselves for them."

Tezuka started to go through the arrangements for the mission. Next to her, Sakuno was taking notes, but An would wait till everything was sent to her email, so she just listened.

Or tried to. The problem was now that she'd noticed there might be something between Echizen and the Captain she couldn't stop seeing it!

Echizen had his head propped up on his arm, slumped over the table, but his eyes were focused entirely on Tezuka.

Was she just seeing things? It was so distracting!

The briefing eventually came to an end and An stuck to Sakuno's side as they walked out, leaving Echizen and Tezuka alone in the briefing room.

"Do you want to get something to eat?" An asked.

Sakuno blushed. "Um, I want to but… I've got a load of work to do for this mission," she said. "I'm really sorry!"

"Don't worry," An brushed it off. "Work is important."

Sakuno still looked conflicted. "When we get back we should," she said. "Eat together or have a date or something…" she trailed off, gazing intently as the floor as if she wanted it to open up and swallow her.

This couldn't be happening! What had An done to be this lucky??

"Of course!" An cried, grabbing Sakuno's hand.

They walked hand in hand till they had to part ways, each with a happy glow in their chests.

* * *

 

Ryoma let Tezuka gather up his things before he pounced.

"Hello," Tezuka said as Ryoma clamped onto his back. "Do you need another lecture about why we're not having sex in a briefing room?"

"No," Ryoma grumbled into Tezuka's back.

"You should rest."

"No," Ryoma said again, petulantly. "Wanna spend time with you."

"Tonight," Tezuka suggested.

"Can't, I've got the pre-mission drinks. I don't think I'll escape that till late."

Tezuka sighed, "I've got five minutes."

"Five is enough," Ryoma grinned, slipping around to Tezuka's front and pulling him into a kiss.

He hummed happily as Tezuka grasped his hair, angling his head so that Ryoma's nose wasn't smudging his glasses. When they parted, Tezuka pressed a couple of small kiss on Ryoma's lips.

"Why did you pick me for this?" Ryoma asked toying with one of the buttons on Tezuka's uniform. "Just send a recovery crew."

"Don't you want to do it?"

"I do, it sounds fun." Realisation sunk in. "You're abusing your power, giving me special treatment."

Tezuka at least looked a bit guilty. "It will be good experience for Tachibana and Ryuuzaki."

Ryoma raised an eyebrow, his mouth twisting into a grin. "It will," he agreed, "and this is way more doable than letting me fly in a nebula."

Tezuka actually blushed. So Ryoma kissed him.

* * *

 

The traditional pre-mission drinking session was held anytime one or more members of the squadron were being sent off. It had few rules (and the ones it did have tended to go out the window once a certain amount of alcohol had been consumed), but one that always held hard was the members being sent off could only drink Aozu- an unnaturally blue, sticky solution that tasted like vinegar mixed with sugar and a whole host of exotic herbs and spices, chosen with little mind to whether they complimented each other.

And of course there were drinking games. Ryoma was good at drinking games.

The rest of his squadron -bar Tachibana- were all very drunk and Ryoma himself had drank so much Aozu he was feeling queasy, but that was just a consequence of the games. Ryoma had managed to cultivate a certain image through the little hints he'd dropped during these games. The kind of hints that made his squadron revere him.

"I've never had sex in zero G," Nomura said.

Ryoma was surprised when most of his squadron drank, but then there were plenty of hotels that catered for that kind of thing.

Ryoma downed a shot of course -he'd banged Tezuka during the 5 day auto-grav outage last year. Tezuka had been a ball of stress at the and Ryoma was proud to say he completely loosened him up.

"I've never had sex with a superior officer," Ryoma said before downing his shot of Aozu. No one else took a drink and Ryoma smirked.

"I've never slept with a squadron member."

Well, Tezuka had been his squadron ember and they had slept together back then. Of course, this question had come up multiple times in the past, so he received far fewer impressed looks than the previous question.

"I've never slept with them both," Ryoma cut in -everyone was drunk, no one cared about the rules.  Right now, it was time to end the evening with a bang. As he suspected, he was the only one who took a shot. And now for the big finish. He grabbed the almost empty bottle of Aozu. "At the same time." He downed the rest of the bottle, slammed it down on the table and got to his feet. "Good night," he said cheerfully, basking in the awe radiating from his squadron and left.

He was sure he was going to throw up when he got to his room and he grabbed some medicine to settle his stomach.

He'd learnt a lot from Tezuka about how to lead a squadron. Of course, he has earned a different kind of respect to his Captain, but the principle was the same.

"It's Tezuka, isn't it?"

Ryoma looked round to see Tachibana leaning against the door. "Who knows," he said mysteriously, hoping she'd drop it.

The look Tachibana gave him let him know she knew exactly who it was, but before she could say anything Eiji stumbled in.

"When," he slurred, pointing an accusatory finger at Ryoma, "did you have a threesome? Why didn't you tell me?" he cried, throwing his arms around Ryoma, who rolled his eyes and patted his friend on the head. "W-We're friends! You should tell me these things!"

Ryoma sighed, "maybe later."

"No! Now!"

Tachibana was giggling and Ryoma wished he could go to bed.

"Once you're sober," he promised knowing full well Eiji wouldn't remember. "Go to bed."

But the alcohol was taking its toll and Eiji's outrage at not knowing about Ryoma's metaphorical threesome was being overtaken by sleep.

Ryoma grunted as he took his friend's weight and manhandled him across to the sofa.

"Find a blanket," he asked Tachibana who scurried into Eiji's room and grabbed one, throwing it over his sleeping form.

"That was annoying," Ryoma muttered. "I'll see you in the morning."

He went to his room and sunk heavily into his desk seat, letting out a long sigh. He still felt sick from the Aozu and really didn't want to sleep alone tonight.

He waited until he was sure Tachibana had gone to bed. Eiji wouldn't hear him leave- he slept like a log when he was drunk- and if Tachibana heard then… well, she probably wouldn't tell anyone. She didn't know for sure he was visiting Tezuka and the crew would believe their captain and ace over a newcomer.

The corridors of the ship were quiet and completely empty around the officer's quarters. Ryoma followed his feet to Tezuka's, knowing his way instinctively.

He knocked on the door quietly and slipped in. "It's just me," he told the figure sat up in bed, reading.

"I should have known," Tezuka said, but he sounded amused. He patted the spot next to him and Ryoma crawled into bed, leaning his head on Tezuka's thigh.

"I hate Aozu," he muttered and Tezuka ran a hand through his hair.

"I don't miss it," Tezuka said. "You should sleep. You've got a lot of work tomorrow."

"Only if you sleep too," Ryoma replied. "It's a good thing I came, you'd be reading all night without me."

"I've just finished anyway," Tezuka said, putting his book and glasses aside and switching off the light.

They rearranged themselves, arms wrapped around each other, holding on as they flew through space.

* * *

 

Y-vex 8 was one of the first planets humans had terraformed, turning it from a barren rock to a fertile planet perfect for farming. At least, that had been the plan. The introduced vegetation, planted for purely aesthetic reasons, had gone rogue before any farming could take place. And had taken over most of the planet. It had been abandoned soon after other than a few brave souls who had taken up sheep farming on the moorland in the hills.

Ryoma was wishing he hadn't drank so much Aozu as he gazed out the window of the transport ship at the verdant planet below.

At least the location of the base was in a cooler part of the planet- he didn't think he could cope with the blistering heat and humidity of the equator.

Opposite him, Ryuuzaki was sat looking pensive. Ryoma wasn't sure what science things she did, hopefully it was something useful.

If it were up to him, he'd be the one flying them down, he was sure he could pick up how to do it in a couple of minutes. But Tezuka had insisted that Kawamura fly them.

At least Tachibana had stopped fawning over Ryuuzaki as she had been all morning. It wasn't that he had a problem with them being together, he just didn't want to watch them having heart eyes at each other.

Slowly, the Seishun drifted behind the planet and the sickness in Ryoma's stomach started to be replaced by butterflies.

It wasn't the most thrilling or dangerous of missions, but it meant he could get off the ship and not just for some stuffy diplomatic party.

Something beeped up front and Ryoma felt the tension seep through the ship.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Another ship approaching," Kawamura replied. "The sneaky bastards were hiding behind that moon!"

"That doesn't sound good," Ryuuzaki said, more to herself than anyone.

Ryoma unstrapped and jogged up to the cockpit. He could see the ship now, a small dot illuminated by the star, growing bigger by the second. It was moving fast.

"Avoiding actions?" Tachibana suggested.

"They haven't done anything yet," Ryoma replied as Kawamura put the shields up.

The tension gripped Ryoma's chest. If he'd been in his Javelin he'd be fine, he knew exactly how to fly it and had the ability to fight back. Right now, all they had were handguns.

As it got closer, features on the other ship could be picked out. It was a jumble of parts from random ships, but bristling with weapons.

"Pirates!" Ryoma cried as the pirate ship fired at them.

"Bring it on!" Kawamura yelled, banking the ship which threw Ryoma and Tachibana off their feet. "Strap in, baby!"

They nosedived towards the planet. Ryoma clung onto the back of Kawamura's chair whilst he flew the freight ship like a fighter. Behind him, Ryuuzaki was screaming and Tachibana had managed to find a strap on the wall to cling to as the ship rattled, bombarded by the pirate's fire.

Kawamura was laughing. "Hang on!" he cried, pushing the ship down even faster into the vast cloud banks on around the planet. The ground was worryingly close now and Ryoma kept waiting for Kawamura to pull up. When Ryoma was absolutely sure he was going to die, Kawamura pulled up the nose, slamming on every breaking system. They piled into the moorland, leaving a huge scar in the heather.

It took Ryoma a few seconds for his brain to catch up. He wasn't dead and that took a while to sink in. The others seemed to be in the same condition. Finally, his brain kicked into gear.

"Grab the survival packs and get out!" he ordered, charging to the back of the ship and ripping open the cabinet door.

The survival packs were all packed into backpacks and he grabbed as many as he could carry, the other following his lead. The ship was designed to carry 50 people and each had a pack.

He also pulled a couple of guns and energy packs off the wall to go with the blaster hanging at his hip.

The pirate ship was circling back to them as they ran out onto the moorland.

Ryoma had to give Kawamura his due, he had dropped them off at the forest edge.

Running through the heather was hard, it hid large holes in the ground and the tangled branches caught their feet. Ryoma fell a couple of times, landing face first in the glowing flowers.

He was very aware of the roar of the pirate ship approaching rapidly. The whining 'whoooo' of the engines shutting down rang in his ears as they finally reached the edge of the forest.

The undergrowth was worse than the heather, dense and full plants that stung and scratched. It dawned on Ryoma that they were running blind, making so much noise that it would be easy to track them.

"Come on," he called over to his shipmates, beckoning them into a particularly overgrown patch of undergrowth.

"What are we doing?" Ryuuzaki whispered.

"Hiding," Tachibana replied.

It was a good thing the ground was dry, Ryoma thought checking over where they'd just walked and seeing no sign of footprints. He doubted the pirates were very good trackers, they were probably after their ship more than anything.

The problem was, if they did get captured, he was the only one regulations said should have his ransom paid.  The others could be saved if the price was low, but the price was never low of ISEF members. Ryoma had to make sure they weren't captured.

His ears strained for any sound of the pirates approaching. All he knew was that they weren't the dreaded Higa pirates, who only used sleek, dangerous looking ships. These were most probably a rag-tag local group being opportunistic. That didn't stop them being dangerous.

After about ten minutes Ryoma had assumed the pirates had gotten lost. An hour later, Ryoma realised they hadn't bothered chasing them at all.

The others were looking pretty bored too, looking around at the flowers growing on the bush they were hiding in.

"We need to contact the ship," he said, sitting on the ground.

Ryuuzaki pulled a radio from one of her survival packs and switched it on. "That's weird," she said after a few moments fiddling with it. "It's like something's jamming it."

"The pirates?" Tachibana suggested, looking over Ryuuzaki's shoulder.

"Or it's broken," Ryoma added, pulling out his own radio. It was fully powered and definitely had a signal to the ship, but no matter what he did, he couldn't create a connection.

A full check of every radio that had showed that none of them could connect to the Seishun.

"What should we do now?" Kawamura asked

"I can get our position with this," Ryuuzaki told Ryoma.

"Do it," Ryoma said, "and we'll go to the abandoned base. At least there's some shelter there."

"And they're expecting us to be there," Tachibana added.

They all watched as Ryuuzaki fiddled with the radio.

"Okay, I've figured it out," she said

She lead them through the forest, focusing so intently on the map she almost walked into trees and was only saved by Tachibana pulling her back.

The base had been cut out of the forest decades ago and had now been reclaimed. Half the buildings had collapsed as trees grew on them, but there were a few that had somehow survived, although had trees and bushes growing through the windows.

Along the way it had started to rain and they were all glad to squeeze past a thick tree trunk into one of the smaller buildings. The interior was rotten and cold with plenty of leaks in the roof, but it was dryer than outside.

"At least we've got tents," Tachibana said, opening one of her packs and grabbing a food bar. Ryuuzaki was trying the radio again and Kawamura was clearing some of the rotten tables.

"I'm gonna go explore," Ryoma muttered, "see if I can find those Javelins."

"I'll come too," Tachibana offered.

"I'm fine, I just want a couple of minutes alone," Ryoma replied and slid through the blocked doorway. He dodged under the awning of one of the other buildings that was still standing and started coughing.

Great, he was coming down with a cold. Just what he needed!

There was a large building in front of him that was very clearly a hangar. He jogged over. There was a big lock and chain across the doors that looked modern compared to the rest of the base. Surely the hangar would have deteriorated a lot and the front doors were not the only way in.  He started to investigate.

* * *

 

"Ryoma's been gone a while," Sakuno said worriedly. So far, it hadn’t been as nerve wracking as she'd thought it would be going on a mission with her old crush and her new crush-sort-of-girlfriend. Okay, it had been terrifying so far, but not because of her love life.

An walked over to look out a broken windowpane and frowned. It had stopped raining some time ago and it was starting to get dark.

"I'll go find him," An said.

"I'll come too," Sakuno said, getting to her feet.

"And I'll look after our things," Kawamura said. "We don’t want them to get stolen."

"We don’t," Sakuno agreed, smiling at Kawamura, who turned a little red.

"He'd have gone to the hangar," An said as they squeezed out of the doorway. "Idiot, going off by himself."

"Ryoma's like that," Sakuno told her. "He just… walks off."

An pulled out the blaster out of her holster. Sakuno hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

"I'll go first," She said as they reached the hanger and found the path Ryoma had beaten through the undergrowth. 

Sakuno followed behind cautiously. She didn't trust the plant life growing around them, who knew how they had mutated over the years?

"Where are you?" An muttered to herself as the edged along the wall of the hanger.

He's just gone wandering like he usually does, Sakuno thought, trying to squash her worries.

"Oh god," An gasped, suddenly running. Shocked, Sakuno followed, her view blocked by An.

It didn't take long to see what had happened.

An knelt down at the side of a body. Ryoma's body.

Sakuno gasped, hands flying to cover her mouth.

Ryoma was lying face down. An carefully turned him over, revealing blood running from his nose.

"He's still breathing," An said grimly. "Get his feet, we'll carry him back."

As they walked, Sakuno racked her brains for the small amount of medical training she had and anything she'd heard from Tomoka. This wasn't her job though, she was an engineer not a medic! Ryoma was looking very pale, but that could mean anything.

"We won't get him into that building," An said.

They set Ryoma down under an awning and went to grab a tent and some medical supplies.

"Do you know what's wrong with him?" An asked, coughing a little.

"No idea," Sakuno replied, watching Kawamura put up a tent. "I wish we could contact the ship."

"He's tougher than he looks," An tried to comfort her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

With Ryoma safely in a tent, Sakuno tried out the diagnosis machine. Tomoka called it worse than useless, but it was all they had at the moment. Carefully, she smeared some of the blood from Ryoma's nose onto a slide and shoved it into the machine.

"No Diagnosis Available," the machine said dispassionately and Sakuno threw it to the floor.

What a useless piece of junk!

"What now?" An asked as Sakuno emerged from the tent, looking flustered and annoyed.

"I don't know," Sakuno admitted. "He needs medical attention as soon as possible."

"Sorry," An said once she'd finished coughing. "I think I've got a cold or something."

Sakuno patted her shoulder sympathetically. "You'll survive," she said jokingly. An smiled at her and then keeled over onto her shoulder. Sakuno jumped and squeaked -it was pathetic, she'd been  _ wanting _ this to happen for ages and suddenly a wonderful woman shows her some affection and she acts like a frightened baby deer!

"Um-" she started then saw An's nose bleeding. "Oh god. An. An, are you okay?" she asked, shaking An carefully. An moaned and slumped further down, gurgling.

"Kawamura!" Sakuno shouted as An fell across her lap.

Kawamura, who had been investigating the other buildings, ran over, looking concerned. "What's wrong?"

"An's fallen ill too," Sakuno explained. "Please help me move her."

They quickly moved An into another tent and, for lack of anything better to do, wrapped her up in blankets. Sakuno could feel her throat tickling and dread started to pool up in her stomach. They needed to find a way to communicate with the Seishun. And fast.

"I wish we had our own ship," Kawamura said mournfully. "Do you think there are actually Javelins here?"

"Let's find out," Sakuno said, getting to her feet.

"There's usually a back entrance," Kawamura said as they made their way around to the back of the hangar. Sakuno nodded, following in Kawamura's footsteps as he pushed aside the overgrown plants.

"Or a hole in the wall," Sakuno said as the rounded the corner and found a small section of the metal wall had rusted through leaving a hole big enough for Sakuno to squeeze through.

"I guess I'll stand guard," Kawamura said. "Call me if you need anything."

Sakuno nodded and crawled through the gap. It was a tight fit and the rusted metal tore at her flight suit, but she made it through.

The only light inside filtered through the small holes that had rotted into the walls and roof, through the murky light, Sakuno could make out lots of  _ stuff _ , just piled high everywhere.

It must have been used storage, she thought as she unzipped her baggy flight suit and pulled out a torch from the utility belt around her waist.

The torchlight somehow made everything creepier. Before she could only make out vague shapes in the dark, but at least it was the same all around. With the torch she could see a tiny proportion of the hangar in good detail and absolutely nothing else.

She made her way carefully across the vast expanse of the hangar floor, occasionally jumping when she accidentally kicked something, sending it skittering across the with a metallic clanging.

She wished she could be brave and strong like An and Ryoma.  She tried, she honestly did, but it was so  _ hard _ . Especially in the middle of a creepy hangar and -she coughed- when she was probably coming down with whatever had taken An and Ryoma.

But she had to. She was the only one who could do this.

The portable radios were good and would normally get a good connection, but weren't very powerful so random atmospheric conditions could render them useless. A radio powered by two sub-light engines wouldn't suffer the same fate.

The light from her torch fell over a very familiar shape.

Two Javelins sat at the front of the hangar, their usually pristine white and grey livery dirty and greening.

She jogged over to them, a warm feeling blooming in her chest. She loved these ships, they were like old friends to her. As a child, she'd had shelves lined with model ships and little toy ones she flew around the house imagining herself piloting one through space.

As she'd grown up, she'd realised she could never take part in a dogfight, but still wanted to be close to the ships she loved. So, she'd become an engineer.

She pulled out a pocket computer from her utility belt. The cockpit of the Javelins could only be opened with fingerprint recognition. But the older software versions could be hacked so easily it was laughable. 

The computer port was at what Sakuno always considered to be the ship's 'cheek'. She plugged in her computer and easily navigated through the network until the cockpit opened with a hiss.

After a small coughing fit, she clambered into the cockpit. The layout was a bit older than she was used to, but most of the switches and buttons were in the same place.

With a high pitched whirring noise the engines came to life. It was far easier than she'd been expecting, Javelins didn't tend to like being left unused, especially not in the damp. The engines happily growling away, Sakuno plugged her computer back in and quickly programmed  in the Seishun's communication key.

"Hello," She said, opening up the connection. "Can anyone hear me?"

"This is the ISEF Seishun," a voice said on the other side and Sakuno almost cheered with joy. "Identify yourself."

"Sakuno Ryuuzaki. Science Division," Sakuno replied quickly. "Two members of our mission have been taken ill," she managed to say before collapsing into another coughing fit. "Requesting immediate recovery."

Everything around her was starting to blur and she was vaguely aware of someone speaking to her. She shook herself.

"Please repeat," she said, but her voice sounded utterly weak.

The person on the other end started speaking again, but her ears weren't listening, being filled with static instead.

Something dribbled down from her nose and she touched it, pulling her hand away to reveal blood.

At least they can track this signal, she thought vaguely before the world went black.

* * *

 

What was odd, Ryoma thought as he recovered consciousness, was that he didn't hurt. 

He forced his eyes open and found himself in the medical bay, which, after a quick scan of his memories, made sense.

He was plugged into so many machines he may as well be a robot and he wasn't sure any part of his body apart from his eyes were moving. With a great effort, he managed to turn his head and saw Tezuka sat next to his bed, reading something on his computer.

"'ezuk-uh," his mouth managed to slur. He was gratified when Tezuka twitched slightly in surprise.

"Ryoma," Tezuka said, shoving his computer aside and taking Ryoma's hand. "The others are recovered," he said when Ryoma shot him a questioning look.

Ryoma nodded, his mouth didn't feel up to speaking anymore. Tezuka squeezed his hand and went to find a doctor.

* * *

 

"So, about that date," An said as she and Sakuno walked through the ship on the way to the med bay to see Ryoma as he was, at long last, released. At the end of every shift, Tomoka had gone to Sakuno to complain about every single thing Ryoma had done. 

"He's so annoying! Why did you even like him?" She'd moaned and Sakuno has laughed. “Why couldn’t you have been more affected by the pollen instead of him? No offense.”

“I can’t believe all it took to almost kill us was pollen!” An moned, echoing Sakuno’s thoughts.

“It is normally the small things,” Sakuno said.

The science department had loved it. Even now, two months later, they were in orbit around Y-vex 8, Inui leading groups down to the planet to research the newly evolving plant species.

“At least we all survived.”

“All thanks to you,” An said, sliding an arm around Sakuno’s waist. “I can’t believe my girlfriend is a genius.”

Sakuno turned bright red, but leaned into An, an arm wrapping around her. She could get used to this.

* * *

Ryoma’s lungs were still iffy when he left the med bay (the pollen, it turned out, had some corrosive properties and Ryoma apparently had weaker than average lungs- he’d resented being told that), but the doctors had gotten so annoyed with him they’d decided that, as long as he didn’t do anything too strenuous, he’d be fine. 

Ryoma had been completely fine with that. The med bay was boring and Tezuka could only visit a couple of times, staying for only a few minutes and never kissing or touching him. Unfortunately, he was then informed that ‘strenuous activity’ included sex. He spent most of his time in Tezuka’s room, reading. Tezuka’s bed was far bigger and more comfortable than his own and he avoided his squadron making jokes about his weak lungs. They no doubt wondered where Ryoma had disappeared off to, but whatever they decided would only enhance his reputation. 

Being in Tezuka’s room also meant he could indulge in his favourite hobby of ‘Tezuka bothering’. It had taken Tezuka a couple of days to realise he wouldn’t get any work done in his room, so had made sure to complete everything before coming back to entertain his bored boyfriend.

* * *

 

The cafeteria was not a romantic place. If she’d stopped to think about it for even a second, An would have never asked Sakuno to have dinner with her there, surrounded by the rest of the ship. But, she hadn’t -she’d been too overjoyed by the prospect of going on a date with Sakuno- and here they were.

Cafeteria food was not romantic either. It was all re-hydrated and bland. But there wasn’t any other choice in space.

In the end, it didn’t matter how un-romantic the setting was, or the food was or the fact she could clearly hear next door’s conversation about the best way to reassemble an engine. She was with Sakuno and that was all that mattered.

After their un-romantic meal, they walked together through the ship, talking and not talking.

“Can I show you my favourite part of the ship?” Sakuno asked quietly.

“Of course!” An cried, “Lead the way!”

Sakuno did so, leading An through the winding corridors to the aft of the ship, to a large window looking out into space.

“Not many people come here,” she said, touching the glass. “I don’t know why.”

“It’s beautiful,” An breathed, taking in the billions of stars sparking through the panoramic window.

“You can see the engines too,” Sakuno said, grinning and pointing down to the huge cylinders and the pale blue discharge roaring out of them. “I always come here when I want to be alone.”

“Do you want to be alone now?” An asked, carefully taking Sakuno’s hand.

“Alone with you,” Sakuno clarified, smiling. 

It was time to be brave again. To summon her inner Ryoma or An and act on her impulse.

She stepped forward and kissed An.

  
  
  


**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Learn To Fly](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11243724) by [rockbrigade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rockbrigade/pseuds/rockbrigade)




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